New York, New York (AP/ICC)

Attorneys for an American Indian man convicted of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on a South Dakota reservation in 1975 took their fight to free the imprisoned man to a New York courtroom during December.

The attorneys for Leonard Peltier argued for the release of all FBI files stemming from the three-decade-old case. Appearing before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court in Manhattan, they contended that the documents should have been turned over to them at the time of trial in 1977. Peltier was convicted by a jury in Fargo, N.D., that year.

They are now seeking the release of the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, hoping the withheld information will lead to Peltier’s exoneration.

“The FBI cannot use exemptions under FOIA to shield unauthorized, illegal tactics in this case,” Peltier’s attorney, Michael Kuzma, told the panel. Kuzma claimed investigators coerced witnesses and withheld evidence in building a case against Peltier.

Justice Department attorney H. Thomas Byron III told the court that unfettered release of the documents would compromise the confidentiality of the witnesses. He said the witnesses were guaranteed confidentiality, either expressed or implied.

“The circumstances of this case make it clear that anyone who provided information would have reason to have concern for their well-being,” Byron argued.

The FBI in Buffalo released 797 pages of material in 2004. But it withheld some 15 pages and redacted large portions of the released pages, citing exemptions allowed under FOIA for national security concerns and to protect the identity of agents, witnesses, and informants.

The judges reserved a decision on whether to overturn a Buffalo federal court’s ruling last February and order the release of the 15 withheld documents and grant unfettered access to the others with redactions. The federal court in Buffalo found that the FBI could keep secret the handful of documents.

Peltier, 60, is serving two life sentences at the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa.

He was a security guard for the American Indian Movement in the 1970s and at times served as a personal body guard to AIM leader Dennis Banks.

Peltier was convicted in 1977 of killing the two agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. His supporters have been trying to get his conviction overturned for years, saying he was wrongfully targeted because of his activism.

Kuzma said outside court that any ruling against Peltier would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kuzma said the defense team is seeking more than 140,000 pages of FBI documents from field offices nationwide.

More than two dozen supporters of Peltier filled the rear benches in the courtroom during the 30-minute hearing. “They needed someone to blame for the crime and they got him,” said supporter Jerry Sevitz of Manhattan.

Testimony recorded in court transcripts in the recent conviction of Arlo Looking Cloud in 2004, for being party to 1st degree murder in the death of another AIM member, Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash, indicated that Peltier had not only interrogated Aquash, told other members of AIM that he believed she might be a government agent, but had bragged and reinacted the shooting to several members of the Movement in the fall of 1975 while federal authorities were searching for him.